Another gross weather day so I have to agree with John K and Chip who wrote that I'm not missing anything weather-wise by staying home this week.

The Axis of Weasels is now meeting to decide what they are going to do with Iraq in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam's regime. Excuse me? Wait a minute - you jokers refused to lift a finger to help the Iraqi people, warned us against going in there and now you think you're going to be the ones to make decisions for these people going forward?

[Hrumph.]

Apparently even the lone, long-suffering diplomat in the Bush administration has had enough of this:

US Secretary of State Colin Powell today challenged Russian, French and German leaders' contention that only the United Nations has the authority to rebuild post-war Iraq.

"We're not prepared to say, 'fine, this conflict has come to some conclusion and we're all leaving and going to turn it over to the United Nations'," he told NBC's Nightly News.

On MSNBC, commentator Raymond Tanter said that if the US is the one who put together a "coalition of the willing" to liberate the Iraqis, then the US can certainly put together a "coalition of the billing" to reconstruct the country.

[And you can guess whose bills will be at the bottom of the payment pile.]

One advantage of being home this week was being able to watch the fall/liberation of Baghdad on TV. The war really has been an amazing "success", for lack of a better term, much to the surprise of many people, both at home and abroad.

Steven DenBeste has a terrific overview of what happened, and specifically why the victory has been such a surprise to some. He details both the plans and the flexibility in the campaigns in the north and south, the Special Forces efforts, the superb idea of giving the responsibility of Basra to the British, and the masterful turn of the Turkish debacle into an American-Kurdish powerplay that achieved a rapid result with far fewer troops than would have been exposed if the Turkish bases were used.

I'd excerpt from it, but it's best read as is. Go to it.

Here's a brilliant idea: The Defense Department has issued the top 55 Most Wanted Iraqis in the form of a deck of cards. What better way to get the faces of those you seek in front of the members of the armed forces who have to find them - give them some cards to play with when they have some down time.

You want to play along? Here's the full deck from the Defense Department's website.

During the press conference announcing what I call the "Pack with the Devil", a British reporter asked if the joker was former Information Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf, who denied US forces were anywhere near Baghdad even as their tanks rumbled through the capital. You know: Baghdad Bob. Heh.

[Actually, I think there are three extra jokers in this deck: Chirac, Schroeder, and Putin.]